“Any deal for [the] company is highly complex in our view, requiring simultaneous management of a declining business, as well significant restructuring, and as such an acquirer maybe be best advised to wait for [the company] to shrink meaningfully before making any potential move,” Garcha said. “A break up is possible… [But] we question the quality of the underlying patent portfolio and also believe that converting RIM’s existing network operations center for other OS platforms may require a high level of effort for minimal functionality improvement.”

RIM is far from a worthless company, of course, as it has an estimated subscriber base of 80 million around the world. But acquiring RIM wouldn’t just mean taking on the BlackBerry brand, its operating system and its patents: It would also mean taking on the company’s network operations center (NOC) that it uses to securely transmit email, as well as its BlackBerry Enterprise Server business. Or put another way, buying up RIM and integrating its products into another portfolio would mean managing a lot of complex moving pieces that many companies simply lack the expertise to handle effectively.